The Afroperuvian thinker Victoria Santa Cruz

Victoria Eugenia Santa Cruz Gamarra (27 October 1922 - August 30, 2014) has become known in recent years by an international audience for her 1978 visual poem "Me gritaron Negra" (They called me Black), a work showcased in the exhibition "Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985". Victoria was a teacher, composer, writer, choreographer and activist of AfroPeruvian art and part of the legendary Santa Cruz family. An original thinker, Santa Cruz reflected and lived rhythm, in its connection to its existence in all things, and the cosmos.

The following is a transcript I did from an interview by Marco Aurelio Denegri, where Santa Cruz speaks about her book "El importante rol que cumple el obstáculo" (The important role of obstacles) in the Peruvian television program "El Uso de la Palabra" (The Use of the Word). A translation in English can be found below.

Marco Aurelio Denegri (MAD): I would like to ask you a question of a personal nature, because I think that in this case it is important. The fact of being a woman, the fact of being black and the fact of being from Latina and also completely from the part of the planet that we call Peru, have these been 3 obstacles for you or not?

Victoria Santa Cruz (VSC): They have been obstacles because I realized that this prevented me from certain things. I have realized that it is an obstacle, because I have really verified it. The name of this conference that I gave in the congress: “The important role that the obstacle plays” is important because I realized that the obstacle plays a role: who in me is upset? Who in me reacts and from what place? And then I began to discover, that the enemy lives at home.

And I began to discover –and that’s why I care so much to share it– that the obstacle is luck, if one begins to understand and begins to stand up, that is, to assume their responsibility without seeking whom to blame. And one starts to find that key that says: “Know yourself”. That is a wonderful key that will always exist. Because as long as human beings don’t know who they are, they will always have to look for someone to blame. It is very comfortable, but it is a trap, because everything that is comfortable is a trap.

MAD: These difficulties that you have found, how do they come to be? Is it due to a general situation of discrimination or due to social issues? In which way?

VSC: Well, it’s discrimination. I love that you are asking me this. I care a lot about this issue, because we get the idea into our heads to say that they discriminate against me because of this or that, but that is nothing more than a consequence of something else: that the human being, let’s understand it well, is divided. He/she says one thing, thinks another and does another. And this division, as long as is till subconscious, will destroy us.

Then, racism, discrimination according to races, discrimination based on religion, discrimination by last name, discrimination for money, they all are the consequences of a real division. And then here is something that I would love to share: from the moment the enemy lives at home, it is because, for some reason, we are not at home.

And then it is to begin to stand up, to assume our responsibility, without looking for someone to blame, because there is no revolution without evolution, and this is born within each one of us. And start discovering how important is something called present. Only in the present there is action, and only in action there is mutation, transformation.

I’ve been discovering this almost since I can use reason, because from an ancestral memory I say: “I inherited basic aspects of rhythm, Africa.” And when in life, which is the school we have forgotten, everyday life, I begin to touch bottom, at a moment in my life I said: “However African, this is Cosmic, because what does human beings have, no other than an aspect of the Cosmos?” Then it is very easy to say I am a microcosm. Okay! If you are a microcosm, discover the laws within you and the macrocosm, and enter the place that belongs to you!

MAD: Here, it seems to me, that there is an inversion in your approach, because normally it is said that the transformation will first have to be social and then later, personal. And you reverse the terms and say that the revolution begins …

VSC: … at home! I believe it, there is no revolution without evolution. Also, the social, what is that? That is, we must not continue swimming in an ocean of words. The so called “social” is what? In fact, if we are not connected with ourselves, we cannot connect with the other.

In addition, there is one thing that must be taken into account –talking about this division and talking about these consequences of division. This division is present in the family cell –which is terrible, because this cell is disappearing, is not that so? because nowadays the father works, the mother works, the kids are in childcare… but the family cell is fundamental! There are certain things that are not learned if it is not in that cell family. When we are connected with ourselves, then one begins to understand what is respect, and that the basis of everything, including love, is respect.

That’s why, when this is understood from a certain age, it is a conviction because there is an internal connection. So this is not rational, this is not analytical, this is not a conventional thing, this IS, without an adjective. And there lies what is commitment, and then it is respected because it is within our essence. And this, then, begins to give way to that quality of attention, from the inside-out, it begins to feed –because everything is food, everything is life and life needs sustenance– something that lives in us, something that lives in ourselves and that is called dignity.

Quotes

"In organic cultures there is no such thing as "specialization" or "art"; dance and music are part of life, learned from life and enacted for the purpose of living." (Feldman, 2006: 67).

"Dance, music, are means. They’re not ends." (Feldman, 2006: p. 306)

"Rhythm is something that exists and that is in our interior and that exists as soon as you hear it. But there are people who are forcing their bodies to move, and that means nothing. Rhythm exists in everything." (Feldman, 2006: p. 308)